The answer to a guy like me
by mochioshawott
Summary: A boy who can't break up and a girl who can't leave. That's what best describes the rocky relationship between a now adult Tobey and Becky. Did they really think it could ever work? Late night thoughts lead to arguments that make them re-evaluate their relationship. Late Birthday present for superstarwordgirl


A/N: Title and description taken from Leessang's 'Girl who can't break up, boy who can't leave.'

I own neither the show nor the song

Also, birthday present for superstarwordgirl. Supposed to be one long one shot but I can't write up the second half which explains the title. So it might be a two maybe three chapter fic.

* * *

Love.

They say that your supposed to want it, that you need it. They say that love fills even the most hardened of men to feel light and lively. Love can make even the most desperate of situations seem they can be conquered. It is not only the passion between two people but the fact that someone is there to back you up, to support you. That's what gives love its' most powerful meaning.

They also say that Love hurts. That it can tear people apart. That trust between two people now gone. Both parties feeling exposed and betrayed.

Sometimes it's mutual.

Sometimes it's not.

But the result is always the same.

* * *

Another sleepless, rainy night is what a now 26 year old Becky Botsford woke up to. Her boyfriend of several years still lay in bed. Maybe he'd been sleeping better than she had. Maybe not.

There was no use staying in bed, so she got up and left. Staring out of the window of the area that made up their dining room, kitchen and living room she just stood there watching.

The city, the rain. Anything, really.

Watching the sparkling lights through the blurred glass, a child like thought floated up. What if they, like her, couldn't sleep? What if they were out for a night ride. Just to clear their mind, wear out this never dying energy inside them. If only for some sleep to put her mind at ease.

She knew better than that. Her adult mind reminded herself that they were most likely people returning home from work. Perhaps going to jobs that ripped them from their beds and robbed them of sleep in return for it was a nice thought.

It was not the city that she grew up in but it reminded her so much about it. Warm fuzzy childhood memories played out in her head. She felt a pang of guilt over not having spent more time with her family and friends when she could have.

It was not the first time she had felt regret over her short lived role of super-heroine. There was so much she felt she missed out on. Not having to leave at a villains' beck and call as they urged her to 'entertain' them with stopping their petty and often times over the top plans. Looking back, that's all it was mostly. Just another way to escape what she had thought was a dull and ordinary life as pre-teen.

Oh how she wished she could turn back time and undo a lot of the choices her younger self made. To tell her to just let the police to do their job and stop babying them. To go spend time that she would soon miss as she grew up with a family she'd move away from and friends she would rarely see after high school.

But still there was a part of her that had enjoyed it. The reasoning that it was her 'duty' to her city and its' citizens to defend them from evil doers was merely an excuse. In a way, it had been a _game_ for her as much as it had been for the villains. She enjoyed using her powers to fight crime. She no longer felt suffocated in pretending she was human. She didn't have to worry about letting something slip. She enjoyed the attention, the fact that she was important. That people needed her.

An old rush of that same feeling came back to her as she mused about it.

Her freedom and her stifled regret were very much one and the same. They had their same origins, their same reasons. One was very simply a side effect of the other.

* * *

Becky wasn't sure how long she'd been standing there, lost in her thoughts, when she heard footsteps. Could she have zipped back to their room? Perhaps.

But what good would it do? He already knew she was gone. How long had he known ?

She didn't bother to turn around, she knew he was there.

A weary yawn left Tobey's mouth as he entered the living room.

"Can't sleep?" He asked, as he was starting to come out of his.

"Just...thinking." She paused for a moment. "Yeah."

He wandered over to her side.

"What about?"

"...Just stuff. Like back then."

Tobey let out a sad excuse for a laugh. " You don't have to worry about me destroying the city with robots."

"It's not that." She sighed as she continued to stare out the window.

"Hmmm, I suppose I have been good for a couple of years. I don't suppose I"l go back to creating mass havoc. I can't even remember the last time I used my robots to destroy things."

"It was shortly before we started dating, around high school. I remember because a lot of the other villains started to retire. Or do other things."

"I wonder what the other villains are doing right now. Did they ever say what happened to Doctor Twobrains?" Tobey asked curiously, now more awake.

"You know, I never found out. After his last plot he just kind of...went missing."

"Hmmm, pity." He seemed to start to say something but the words died on his lips.

The two stood there in silence, watching the lights die down as the clock ticked on.

"How long have you known I've been up?" She asked, trying to make small talk to tear her mind from the past. Particularly the past, however short yet very meaningful, she had shared with the Doctor's former self.

It didn't bother her very much anymore for the most part. She knew after the first year or so, when the Doctor had become more active and so on that he was never coming back. So she let go.

At first it was hard but eventually she forgot he had even existed at times. Neither of them had crossed her mind in years until now.

" You mean how long have I known you weren't in bed anymore? Not long. Maybe ten, twenty minutes at most. I figured you weren't in the bathroom or the kitchen getting a glass of water after about ten minutes."

"Hey Tobey. Is there anything you regret? From when we were younger?"

"Hmm...not realizing that the girl I was after was right in front of me. That's for starters." He yawned again.

A thought that had been plaguing her after they were officially 'a couple' came up. Something she never had gotten an answer to.

"How come you were always so cold to Becky but so head over heels for Wordgirl?"

"You know the people in the fair city weren't all too bright, quite dim actually. When you're much smarter than a great deal of the people you meet on a day to day basis you start to disregard a lot of what they do and say. Wordgirl however-she was different."

A suspicion, that had not died out long enough for this to be irrelevant, flared up again.

"Different?...How?"

Noticing the hint of slight betrayal in her voice, Tobey acted cautiously. He didn't want to anger her too much.

"Well, she-you, were smart. Smarter than a lot of the people I knew. You were good with words and didn't need me to dumb things down for you. Also your looks were breath taking."

"That doesn't entirely answer the question though. Why her and not me?"

An awkward silence filled the space between them, feeding that which had been started to grow between them. A certain something that they thought they had killed off years ago in their relationship.

"As I said-when you're surrounded by people not quite on your intellectual level you just wind up tuning out and ignoring a great deal of people and sometimes events." Tobey stated gratingly. It had been a topic they went over more than once early on in their relationship, after he found out the now painfully obvious truth.

It was not something he wanted to go over again, not now.

"Let's not fight about it. If you want to fight about at least wait until morning to do it." Truth be told, Tobey couldn't sleep either and it was almost morning anyway. Dawn would be breaking in about an hour or two. He headed back to the bedroom. Maybe he could catch up on some sleep, or at least stop the conversation from going where he had a very strong suspicion this was going.

"Was it because she was a superhero? That she wasn't human? That she wasn't...normal?" She burst out. A hot burning sensation pricked at the corner of her eyes, threatening to start dripping with tears.

Turning around, Tobey was no better off than Becky was. Frustration and subtle anger were starting to show. An over annoyed look covered his face, scowling. He started to resemble his younger, more troublesome self.

"What do you want me to say, Becky? Clearly you aren't happy with anything I"m saying. Why are you even bringing up the past? I know our relationship back then, when we were just rivals, wasn't the best. I made mistakes and handled things poorly. I admit it. But I've changed since then, years ago."

She found herself speechless. Struggling for the right things to say to put into words the helplessness and restlessness she'd been feeling lately.

"We've always worked things out then, we talked about it. So why can't you do that for me-for us?"

"I just-I don't know.


End file.
